Federal Drive with Tom Temin

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is on the march, establishing what it calls regional innovation engines. It is getting organized around artificial intelligence. It's getting and granting-out more money than ever. For an update, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin spoke with NSF director Dr. Sethuraman Panchanathan. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Army plans to shrink the size of its force by about 24,000 troops as it transitions from supporting counterinsurgency and counterterrorism missions for the last two decades to conducting large-scale combat operations against technologically advanced militaries. The job cuts won’t affect active-duty soldiers as the service is looking to get rid of already empty positions that were created to support counterinsurgency operations but are no longer needed given current strategic priorities. “We’re moving away from counterterrorism and counterinsurgency, we want to be postured for large-scale combat operations. So we looked at where there were pieces of force structure that were probably more associated with counterinsurgency, for example, that we don’t need anymore,” Army Secretary Christine Wormuth told reporters during Defense Writers Group breakfast Tuesday. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Among the dozens of mandates in recent executive orders, there is bunch about artificial intelligence. Among them, a requirement for agencies to inventory their AI use cases for purposes of cybersecurity. Perhaps strangely, the Homeland Security Department put together an inaccurate list, according to the Government Accountability Office, which found a few problems. For more, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin spoke with GAO's Director of Science, Technology Assessment and Analytics, Candice Wright. GAO Report Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Military services members might be serving far from home, but many of them still choose to vote. Now the Defense Department is testing the prototype of new technology for enabling absentee voting. The project is funded by DARPA. For how it works, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin spoke with Dr. Ben Adida, the executive director of VotingWorks. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

One reason the Defense Department can't get to a clean financial audit has to do with its multiple and outdated financial management systems. The DoD does have a plan to modernize the systems, but the Office of Inspector General (OIG) finds a little trouble with how officials are going about it. For the latest, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin talked with OIG project manager Chris Hilton and Shelby Barnes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today's episode of the Federal Drive with Tom Temin: For Defense Department financial management systems, a not-so-pretty picture. Faraway service members will have an easier way to absentee vote. Homeland Security has to catch a horse that's galloped out of the barn. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The National Institute of Standards and Technology is out with a major update to its landmark Cybersecurity Framework. But the key changes in “CSF 2.0” aren’t major shifts in cybersecurity best practices. Instead, officials point out that the new document reflects the broad use of the framework across different industries and technologies, as well as the deepening push to regulate cybersecurity in many sectors. NIST released the CSF 2.0 today, culminating a two-year effort to update a framework that was first published in 2014. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The brinkmanship in Congress isn't looking good for 2024 budget prospects. Contracting will continue even with a long-term continuing resolution or even a partial government shutdown. For some advice on how contractors should deal with what might lie ahead, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin spoke with long-time federal sales and marketing consultant Larry Allen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Military service members who want a way to get a professional credential in coaching, have an new way to do it. It is via the Credentialing Opportunities On-Line, or COOL program. COOL has been around for years. Now it has enlisted the International Coaching Federation. For more, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin talked with Carrie Abner, the Vice President for Credentials and Standards at the International Coaching Federation, and with Coach Danny Doucette, a Trustee of the Air Force Aid Society. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

One of the biggest obstacles to streamlining information sharing in the health field, is the data itself. For decades, various health information systems decades simply have not been compatible with one another. That makes things slower and less efficient for patients, health care practitioners, and the industry itself. Recently Health and Human Services (HHS) updated something known as TEFCA, … the trusted exchange framework and common agreement. TEFCA is all about interoperability of health information. For the details, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin spoke with Dr. Micky Tripathy, the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology at HHS. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this episode of the Federal Drive with Tom Temin: HHS takes a new step toward a long-sought goal for better health information sharing. A new professional credential option for service members when they muster out. Advice for contractors when the government really, really could shut down. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Over the past decade, the number of small businesses in the defense industrial base has decreased by 40%. With the first-ever National Defense Industrial Strategy out, the Pentagon wants to turn things around. The recently awarded defense industrial base consortium agreement, for example, will allow industry partners, including small businesses and non-traditional contractors, to work with the Defense Department on defense supply chain technologies projects and potential research through prototype development initiatives. “One of the things we want to look at is making sure that we are more approachable for small businesses,” Danielle Miller, acting deputy assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Industrial Base Resilience, said during the Washington Technology event on Feb. 16. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Few things in the federal community get as bad of a rap as the hiring process. It takes too long to hire federal workers. It’s too cumbersome. We have too many, or not enough authorities for hiring managers to understand. Without a doubt the federal hiring process is an easy punching bag for agency leaders as to why their workforces are missing or can’t find the skillsets they need. And while the federal hiring process, or for that matter any organization’s hiring process, is far from perfect, part of the problem for federal leaders, according to federal human resources experts, is they don’t understand, haven’t taken the time or just don’t care to know how to work within the system. The same can be said for firing employees. As one long-time chief human capital officer has often told me privately, the hiring and firing systems aren’t the problem, it’s the people and even the technology that fall short. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The House returns to Washington on Wednesday. The Friday after that, Congress will encounter the first of two deadlines for avoiding a partial government shutdown. All this will be underway, as House leadership seems to be melting away. For an update, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin talked with WTOP Capitol Hill Correspondent Mitchell Miller. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The U.S. Marshals service had a busy year, arresting no less than 73,000 fugitives in 2023. And it concluded a multi-agency operation focusing on violent fugitives and drug pushers that had 600 arrests alone. For an update, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin talked with Ronald Davis, the Director of the U.S. Marshals Service. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices